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There were tough customers and there were tougher customers for speedster Anthony Gose to have success against.

And then there was catcher James Benjamin (Tuffy) Gosewisch.

Tuffy was the toughest.

"He had a real quick release, maybe a 1.8 seconds pop time," Gose said. "They say you steal a base off the pitcher, but for some reason he had a lot of success throwing me out."

How many times was Gose erased by Gosewisch and forced to made the long, head-down trot from second base to the dugout?

"I'll bet he got me seven times counting playoffs when I was at New Hampshire and he was at Reading," Gose said, looking back at the 2011 season.

Gosewisch won't be throwing out Gose any more.

The Jays acquired Gosewisch from the Philadelphia Phillies last month, and he has played eight games at triple-A Las Vegas.

"Counting spring training, instructional league, all the times the Phillies and the Jays played each other ... I'll bet he's thrown me out more than 10 times altogether."

An 11th-round pick by the Phillies in the 2005 draft from Arizona State, Gosewisch, 28, has played eight seasons in the minors.

Turning to Tuffy to save the day ... it has come to this for the Jays.

When the minor-league season opened, the Jays had Travis d'Arnaud behind the plate in Las Vegas. He was considered the top prospect in the organization by Baseball America.

Catcher A.J. Jimenez, 22, at double-A New Hampshire, was ranked the sixth-best prospect in the Jays system by Kevin Gray of the New Hampshire Union Leader, who does the best job of anyone covering the Jays minor-league system.

"We had so much and poof there it was ... gone," said one Jays minor-league official watching Brian Jeroloman play. Jeroloman, who started the season at New Hampshire, was saying his goodbyes from the rookie-class Gulf Coast League Jays, healthy enough to be promoted to the class-A Dunedin roster.

It went like this on the Jays' catching carousel:

May 13, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, Concord, N.H.: With an ailing right elbow, Jimenez pinch-hit for Jeroloman in the eighth. Within the week, Jimenez had Tommy John surgery. After 27 games, he had been hitting .257 with two homers, 10 RBIs, with a .666 OPS and threw out 55% of attempted base-stealers.

June 25, Cashman Stadium, Las Vegas: d'Arnaud singled to centre in the first to chase Gose to third against Sacramento. Travis Snider bounced to shortstop Adam Rosales, who threw to second baseman Grant Green as d'Arnaud slid in to break up the double play, with Gose scoring to tie the score 1-1. Except d'Arnaud tore his posterior cruciate knee ligament and was lost for the season. In 67 games d'Arnaud hit .333 with 16 homers, 52 RBIs and a .975 OPS. Some say d'Arnaud may be a September callup. Blue Jays manager John Farrell said no on Tuesday.

July 20, Rogers Centre: The Jays acquire lefty starter J.A. Happ, reliever Brandon Lyon and minor-leaguer David Carpenter, moving reliever Francisco Cordero, and outfielder Ben Francisco to the Houston Astros along with minor leaguers Asher Wojciechowski, David Rollins, Joseph Musgrove, a player to be named, and Perez. Perez was gone after 71 games in which he hit .275 with five homers, 40 RBIs and an .804 OPS.

July 25, Rogers Centre: Oakland's Brandon Inge fouls a ball off in the second inning. Arencibia completes the inning, catching three more hitters, before Jeff Mathis pinch-hits. Arencibia broke his right hand, costing him six weeks.

For those of you scoring at home, that's four catchers injured or traded within 71 days.

Now, Jimenez, d'Arnaud and Arencibia can be found sitting on the trading table in Dunedin.

And the incoming catching acquistions include Joel Galarraga, 30, acquired from the Oakland Athletics, who made his debut May 13 at New Hampshire, Paul Phillips, 35, who came over from the Brewers May 25 and is at Las Vegas, Ryan Eigsti, 26, who was picked up from the Kansas City Royals system and played his first game July 29 at Las Vegas.

And Gosewisch played his first game Aug. 3 at Las Vegas.

No one could be happier than Gose.

DOWN ON THE FARM

Javier Avendano, 21, earned Northwest League pitcher of the week honours at Vancouver for the second time, pitching 11 innings and allowing two runs as he fanned 15. Avendano whiffed a season-high 10 batters in six innings at Tri-City, and then held Yakima to one hit -- a solo homer -- in five innings on Saturday. Avendano is 5-1 and leads the league with a 1.55 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 58 innings. He has allowed more than one earned run in only one of his 11 starts.

Sean O'Sullivan of Las Vegas leads the Pacific Coast League in wins after picking up his 13th against Iowa. Shortstop Brian Bocock had four hits and three RBIs in his first nine at-bats.

Vancouver-born reliever Trystan Magnuson gained his save of the season Sunday as New Hampshire beat Akron 3-0. Yohan Pino pitched six innings allowing two hits, while John Tolisano hit his ninth homer.

Second baseman Jon Berti tied the game in the ninth with a sacrifice fly and made a fine fielding play in extras as Dunedin edged Brevard County 3-2 in extras. The 12-inning game lasted three hours and 50 minutes, the longest game of the year for Dunedin. Jon Talley knocked in the game-winning run.

Anthony DeSclafani moved to 10-3 in a 10-6 Lansing triumph over Great Lakes. He retired the final 11 batters he faced and striking out seven. Michael Crouse of Port Moody, B.C. hit a two-run homer. First baseman K.C. Hobson leads the league for doubles (36) and is second in RBIs (76).

Jeremy Gabryszwski of pitched six scoreless innings Sunday for Bluefield in an 8-0 win over Burlington.

Guelph's Shaun Valeriote has six hits, a double, two home runs and seven RBIs in August for the Gulf Coast Jays. D.J. Davis has seven hits, including four doubles, a triple, an RBI and five stolen bases.

POWER RANKINGS

One evaluator's look at the top five prospects in the Blue Jays system:

1. C Travis d'Arnaud

(.333 average, 16 homers, 52 RBIs, .975 in 75 games at Las Vegas).

"He's going to be a fine receiver. What I like about him, besides the fact he can hit and throw, is the fact he has some leadership qualities."

"He keeps the ball down, has an above-average fastball with a good breaking ball and a solid changeup. Right now they have the potential to be all No. 1s like Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and Tim Hudson with Oakland."

"Sanchez has a great arm and big-time breaking ball. His changeup is still too hard. Two years ago, he was the best of the three. You figure out of three, one will make it, one will get hurt and one will plateau and never be a No. 1."